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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28566495">unreal</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralnoon/pseuds/astralnoon'>astralnoon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Implied Sexual Content, M/M, au where Aleks didn’t leave LA, turns out: it was a mutual feeling the whole time!, writing nhd in 2021? it’s more likely than you think!, “it was all a dream” cliche you say?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 03:41:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,139</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28566495</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralnoon/pseuds/astralnoon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The group has returned to the house. To Aleks, the situation almost feels… unreal.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aleksandr Vitalyevich Marchant/James Richard Wilson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>unreal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Dude where have you been? We’ve been waiting on you for like 15 minutes!” James yells from the… living room? Aleks doesn’t remember the group moving back to the old Colorado house but he’s not complaining; he always felt that Cow Chop had made its best content while it inhabited the rundown house and however they had managed to talk the landlord into letting them come back, he was glad. Upon walking into the living room and getting a good look at James he finds himself even more confused… as James has returned to his former self, prior to his weight loss and getting his sleeves done. Does that mean that California had been-</p>
<p>“Aleks Jesus Christ, will you get over here so we can start filming?” James sharply demands. As Aleks sits James keeps talking to him, “so we’re still on to play Fall Guys for today’s video, right?” Fall Guys? So it’s definitely still 2020, he makes a mental note. </p>
<p>“Uh… yeah, sure; cool by me, dude.” When Aleks lifts his arm to place it behind his head, he sees that his sleeves are complete… so what happened to James? It’s best to not question it, he decides and soon walks in… Trevor and Joe to film? They must have decided to come back when the group moved back to Denver. And once again they look as they had back in 2016 but Aleks decides to stop thinking about it and just go along with what is happening around him. </p>
<p>“Almost ready to start?” Joe asks as he sits down and checks that the camera lens is clear. From near the living room entrance Trevor stands ready to start and James gives the all clear to begin filming. </p>
<p>The gameplay goes on about as well as Aleks would expect it to, with James immediately getting eliminated in the first round and he exclaims a loud “what thE FUUUUCK?!?” and goes on a small rant about how “the fucker ahead of me definitely cheated, did you not see how he practically SHOVED me off the platform before he waltzed his smug ass over the finish line??” He then looks over to Trevor who is struggling to conceal a laugh at James, then getting met with a “what are you laughin’ at, Trevor?? You really think you can do better than me?!”</p>
<p>“I- I never said that, James. I think you did really well, that guy was definitely a cheating asshole.”</p>
<p>“That’s what I fucking thought.” James leans over to get close to Trevor so he can kick at him and as he readjusts his seating position, at first Aleks thinks he’s imagining it but James has indeed moved closer to him; it wasn’t much of a move but James isn’t fully on his side of the couch anymore though he’s not quite on Aleks’ side either. James attempts a new game and this time, he makes it to the second round and during his mini celebration he clasps his hand on Aleks’ knee and it travels up his leg slightly.  But before Aleks can think about it James has moved his hand back to the controller so he can play the second round… where he gets eliminated yet again. </p>
<p>“Aleks you fucking play, I’m sick of these cheating bastards!” James practically shoves the controller into Aleks’ hand and leans back into the couch with an aggravated huff. As Aleks breezes through the first round with ease and starts in the second round, he almost messes up when James suddenly slings an arm around his shoulders. James seems to notice that Aleks tenses up at this as he then squeezes his shoulder and asks, “what’s wrong dude? I’m not allowed to give you moral support?” while flashing a faint smile at him. </p>
<p>“You fucking scared me by getting so affectionate all of a sudden. This isn’t like you at all, bro.”</p>
<p>“Oh come on, Aleks! The one time I decide I’m gonna be nice instead of an asshole and you’re gonna judge me?” Aleks decides to drop it from there and keeps playing while doing his best to ignore how close James is to him now. James could basically be in his lap from how snuggly he’s leaning onto him right now, his right leg firmly pressed against Aleks’ left; as if that wasn’t bad enough James then opts to subtly stroke his thumb along Aleks’ jaw and now he truly can’t ignore James and his out of nowhere affection. He really needs to focus on the game not only to one-up James, but also to not screw up the filming by doing or saying something that he could end up regretting… even if the fire igniting inside of him is threatening to reveal itself. </p>
<p>Before he knows it, Aleks manages to actually win the  whole game and he jumps to his feet with a very loud and proud “FUCK YOU!” aimed at James. When he turns to look at James he expects to see him pouting angrily, but the next thing James ends up doing makes Aleks question his entire existence: James stands up and walks behind Aleks, gently slinging his arms around his waist and whispering into his ear, “that was really good, Aleks. You should be very proud of yourself, babe.” Aleks looks between Joe and Trevor to see if they’re also seeing this but other than putting the cameras down and quietly sitting in their spots, they’re not reacting much to the scene happening in front of them. Suddenly James’ lips find their way to his neck where they latch on with the intention of leaving a mark and Aleks finds himself stifling a moan as James’ hold around his waist tightens briefly, and next thing he knows James is pulling him by the arm to the upstairs bedroom. </p>
<p>Once again, Aleks wonders how Joe and Trevor are able to quietly sit there and ignore this. </p>
<p>While Aleks had quietly hidden some form of love toward James for a while and he should be ecstatic that James has initiated something, he still can’t comprehend this. But as soon as James closes the door behind them and pushes Aleks against it before pressing his lips against his own, he’s done for. Throwing James’ beanie off somewhere into the room and threading his hand into the curly strands, Aleks eagerly returns the kiss and presses himself onto James as closely as he can. After letting the kiss linger for a few beats James pulls back and looks into Aleks’ eyes, a look that is glazed over with lust, and that alone is almost enough to send him over the edge. </p>
<p>“I should have done this so much sooner. I could look at this sight forever,” James pauses and when he continues his voice is much lower, “but there is one more sight with you that I’d love to see even more.” Aleks can only whine as James pulls him into his arms with one more brief kiss before he begins to walk him over to the bed and gently shoves him onto it. Aleks lands on the mattress with a soft grunt and James follows after him, crawling on top of him and the sight of James with his hair fanning around his face combined with his lips parted open slightly is ethereal to Aleks…</p>
<p>… and then Aleks wakes up. </p>
<p>Wincing before slightly opening his eyes he looks around enough to find that once again, he had fallen asleep on his couch and his entire body aches from the awkward position he had slept in. Suddenly his dream comes back to him and now he’s fully awake, yet also feeling somewhat ashamed; it’s not like James or anyone else would know about what his mind had concocted for him while he slept but he knew it wasn’t exactly great to still think of James like that when it had been over a year since he had last seen him in person. But at the same time, Aleks wishes that he hadn’t woken up when he did. Even if he wouldn’t physically feel it, he can’t help but wonder what the sex with James would have been like… the partially arosued state he’s in all but confirming his intrigue. After taking time to shower and take care of the issue at hand Aleks finds himself sitting on his bed and staring at his phone, where he has pulled up the old text conversation he had with James, the last message he sent to him visible on the screen:</p>
<p>
  <i>“I heard you moved to Portland while we were out of town. Kind of wish you had said something beforehand but guess it’s too late for that now lol. If you ever want to game together or even just talk again, the door is always open dude.”</i>
</p>
<p>Aleks had no idea if James ever saw the message (ah, the joys of having an iPhone when your friend has a Samsung!) as he had never replied back to him. When the thought first crosses his mind Aleks thinks he may be going insane, after all he had messaged James to no avail one time already, what’s the chance that he’d actually reply this time? And… the timing of this makes it seem like he has other intentions; wait, DOES he have other intentions with this? He isn’t even sure for himself but as he types out the new message, he hopes that perhaps this will be the one to get James to reply back:</p>
<p>
  <i>“You were in my dream last night. I don’t know if I would be comfortable with flat out sharing it but I thought I would tell you anyway.”</i>
</p>
<p>He really just did that, huh? He may as well have explicitly told James that he almost got fucked by him. Now he would REALLY want to avoid speaking to Aleks knowing that he’s having fucking sex dreams about him… or so he thought until his phone goes off with a text notification. </p>
<p>
  <i>“Can’t be any worse than the dream I had about you like three weeks ago. You had dragged me into the bedroom of the old CC house to fuck me and I was… weirdly into it the entire time?”</i>
</p>
<p> <i>“Wait holy shit, that was basically my exact dream. But you had been the one to drag me upstairs.”</i> Aleks HAS to be dreaming still, right? There’s no way in the world that James would return the feelings he has for him, there’s no way that James loves him back. The increase in his heart rate screams that he’s become hopeful for that to be the case but he doesn’t want to come to terms with it. The one time in the past that he had allowed himself to believe that James might’ve loved him back had ended in heartbreak when James had approached him to excitedly tell him that he… had found a new girlfriend. While Aleks had no idea if they were still together or not, he was not about to potentially break his own heart over James again-</p>
<p>
  <i>“Well holy shit lmao. Suppose I should be blunt about this but… I think at one point I may have had something like a crush on you. But since I had no idea if you’d feel the same way I ended up making myself move on from it and my girlfriend was a major attempt at that. Well I should say my EX girlfriend now I guess.”</i>
</p>
<p>Oh he’s definitely dreaming, there’s no way in hell that this can actually be happening. James is fucking with him right now, Aleks tells himself, but then James sends another message that causes Aleks’ world to stop on its axis:</p>
<p>
  <i>“I’ve been thinking about coming back down to LA to visit for around a week or so. I may have hated that city but that doesn’t change the fact that I made some pretty good memories there and left some really good people behind. Would you want to meet up so we can properly catch up if I do decide to come back down? Not in a date way… unless you WANT it to be in a date way? After all I feel like you wouldn’t be having sex dreams about me if you didn’t have a crush on me as well…”</i>
</p>
<p>Aleks replies almost immediately, <i>“I’d fucking love to catch up. And what if I do have a crush on you? Sounds like you’re the one that wants to make this a date. But we can make it one if you really want to.”</i></p>
<p>
  <i>“I think I’d love to… babe ;)” </i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>“I’m about to change my mind.”</i>
</p>
<p><i>“Oh come on, Aleks. You know that you love me.”</i> And he does, even if he hates to admit it right now.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I didn’t plan on consistently writing for the boys, but here I am :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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